Historic Energy Savings for Museum

Robert Archibald, the Missouri History Museum's president accepted a $90,000 check from Ameren Missouri  on Oct. 6, rewarding the museum's increased energy efficiency. The benefit is part of AmerenUE's incentives program, and it offsets about a quarter of the cost of a new chiller for the museum's library building, on Skinker.

The chiller is already reducing the library's energy consumption by about a third. Energy savings are expected to cover the cost of the new chiller within six years.

"We store a lot of very rare and very fragile material there," Archibald said. "The requirements are fairly stringent in terms of temperature and humidity."

The organization is now looking at ways to save energy at the museum building in Forest Park. Archibald says they may change their lighting and insulation, or start opening windows to cool some parts of the museum.

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